Two weeks ago Phil Mickelson won the British Open. He received 1.43 million dollars in prize money. He was allowed to keep around $570,000. Who got the rest? England and the State of California where Phil Mickelson lives.
Let’s work this out for all those, who like me, are not great with math. Imagine you make $50,000 per year and the state takes 61%. What would that look like? You would bring home $19,500. Imagine you make $75,000 per year and the state took 61%. You would bring home $29,250. I think you get the picture. No average person would stand for the state taking 61% of their income. Some may complain that England is the one levying the taxes, not the U.S. But if you earned $50,000 on English soil would you be happy if the English took $22,500 (45%)? Would you be happy if your home state took 13.3% of your earnings every year before Medicare, Social Security, etc.? That would be $6,500 out of your $50,000 going to the state. In the U.S. the average federal tax on the top 1%, those households averaging 1.4 million, is 35.5%. So if you live in California and made $50,000 and were taxed at the same rate as Phil Mickelson, you would pay 13.3% in state taxes and 35.5% in federal taxes. You would be handing over $24,400 to the government and that does not include Social Security, Medicaid, or self-employment taxes. Would you stand for this? S0 why are we happy to let them to do it to others? Why do we think it is okay to take excessive amounts of money from men, who have lawfully earned it, just because they have more than others?
Before asking a few questions about excessive taxation, here is a quick primer on the poor and rich in Scripture.
As Christians, we know that those to whom much is given, much is required. Paul says in I Timothy 6:17-19 that the wealthy are to be rich in good works and not trust in their riches. The rich are to give more. We also understand that all Christians have an obligation to care for the poor. So wealthy Christians should give often and a lot, but they should give secretly (Matthew 6:1-4) and wisely.
In Exodus 30:15 the rich and the poor both give 1/2 a shekel. In Leviticus 14:21 the poor could give less than the rich, but this was not a percentage less. In other words, it wasn’t the rich offering 35% and the poor offering 3%. It was poor bringing less numerically because the poor had less numerically. The poor brought one male lamb (vs. 21) instead of the two male lambs and the one ewe lamb of the rich (vs. 10). Oppressing the poor was always forbidden. This is clear in the year of Jubilee instructions (Leviticus 25; see also Deuteronomy 15). The rich were supposed to provide ways for the poor to get food, such as not gleaning to the edges of the field or gathering fallen grapes (Leviticus 19:10 and 23:22). There does not appear to any civil penalty for not doing these things, but the Lord does hear the cry of the poor and will avenge them.
Throughout the OT the poor and the rich are to be treated with equity by the law. For example in Exodus 23:2-3 it is clear that poor and rich are both entitled to justice. Notice especially verse 3, which says we are not to show partiality to the poor. Leviticus 19:15 says something similar. The poor do not get special treatment in court. There is more about the poor in the prophets. In these texts there is no indication that the state should take more, percentage wise, from the rich simply because they have more and give it to the poor. So let me be clear. I am not saying the poor should be ignored. Nor am I a saying the rich have no obligation to do good deeds. What I am saying is the state does not have a Scriptural right to steal from the rich to give to the poor. Theft perpetuated by the government against the rich is still theft.
Christian pastors should encourage the wealthy among them to give with cheerful hearts to those who need it. But Christian pastors should also call excessive taxation what it is: codified theft. And they should say it from the pulpit. Finally, Christian pastors should encourage their congregation to ask, “Would you want someone doing that to you? Then why do you vote for men who do it to other people?”
Here are few more questions about excessive taxation.
Do we really believe that the state will be wiser with Phil’s $830, 000 than Phil would be? All around us is economic disaster fueled by the policies of the state (see Detroit) and yet the state wants us to trust them with more and more of our money. What would Phil have done with money? He would have invested it somewhere, which normally leads to jobs and economic prosperity for many. Does anyone actually believe that Phil’s money won’t be lost in endless cesspool of government programs that bear no fruit?
Do we believe it is okay to steal from someone simply because they have more? Envy is explicitly forbidden by Scripture (Mark 7:22, Romans 1:29, I Corinthians 13:4). And yet Christians often buy into the rhetoric that because the guy is driving a Porsche instead of a Ford Escort we can steal from him. Envy is what drives 99% of the efforts to increase taxes. They have more than they deserve and we are going to take it back. Christians must reject this way of thinking.
Do those who push higher taxes suffer from the higher taxes themselves? Often the answer to this is no. Both the poor and politicians often vote or push for higher taxes when they are not subject to. Just like Congress avoids the consequences of their own legislative decisions.
Do we really believe that the poor and weak among us are helped by receiving stolen funds? Has any government program for the poor actually produced less poor people? Why can we not look at the last 20 years of fiscal policy and see that it has not worked? Do we really believe the government, state or federal, actually cares about the poor?
Can we not see that these policies will eventually lead to more and more money being taken from everyone? Why stop with Phil Mickelson? Why not take Phil Smith’s money as well? Maybe we should tax the upper 25% at this rate instead of just the upper 1%.
Finally, those who get money back from the government during tax season, would you be willing to pay your share? There are numerous Americans who pay no Federal taxes at all. Often Christians rejoice when they get a refund, such as Earned Income Credit, etc. As Christians, we should be willing to pay taxes. We should not rejoice in the government taking more from the rich so I have to pay less.
In the end, excessive taxation of the rich is theft that creates less jobs, hurts the economy, destroys the desire to earn more, cultivates envy and class strife, oppresses the poor, and opposes the freedom that comes from God.<>
